I'm a strong swimmer and attend two masters classes a week but I've never swum in the open water before. I've gone and entered the Edinburgh open water swimming festival with the aim of doing the 2km swim from Musselburgh to portobello. I've booked the wet suit so I have all the gear. Reality is sinking in though... Should I aim for one of the shorter races that day 800m or 400m or just go for it. I'm terrified I land up having to be rescued, coming last or making a fool of myself. I am a strong swimmer so 2000m is not a problem in the pool but open water might be a different matter. Any advice?

I have no other symptoms really. My skin colour is fine and I'm not pale or jaundiced - folk say I look really well.

Bowel movements are a bit erratic at the moment; I used to be quite regular while at the moment it feels a bit less comfortable and occurs at different times ot the day to usual.

Over the last couple fo weeks there were a few moments of the trots; I'd go to the bathroom once then have to go back 20 minutes later with a much more watery stool. Thereafter I'd be fine for the rest of the day.

Food can make a difference; I'm avoiding rich food as that does make me feel a bit worse and sometimes the thought of a spicy black pudding can make me feel a bit ill (it didn't used to).

It all started in April when I got what felt like a colic attack at a meal (intense stomach pain, sweating and nausea). I've had dull stomach pains ever since (on and off) along with heartburn, indigestion and feeling sick all of which tend to come and go but I seem to have them more often than not.

There doesn't appear to be a single trigger that causes it but I did have indigestion for most of the past weekend. The pain also moves about, sometimes at the top of my abdomen under my ribcage and sometimes a bit lower down

I've been checked for gallstones, had the H Pylori eradication therapy and have just started a course of proton pump inhibitors. All other blood tests were normal too. I've been referred for a endoscopy to see if they can spot any inflammation in my stomach but that won't be for a few weeks now. Had the physio check it out too but she can't find anything wrong either. I don't drink and don't smoke so two of the major risk factors are already ruled out.

It's really annoying as I can't really run. I'm able to swim and go hiking and sometimes that seems to help the pain but I do worry in case I make it worse.

Anyone got any ideas? I've been under a lot of stress at work (my employer has announced another severe round of redundancies and I'm doubting whether I'll escape it this time) so it might be a bit stress related.

I'm getting a bit down by this-- I appear to be losing all my fitness as I can't do as much as I used to be able to and it's really bothering me.

Obviously, people are a lot more ill than me and this doesn't appear to be serious (just really uncomfortable) but any advice would be gratefully received

My height is 1.77m and I weigh roughly 102kg and while I'm reasonably solid looking I don't think I look particularly overweight although the scales obviously disagree..

I think I'm going to aim for a 10% reduction in weight for a start. I've gone out and bought kitchen scales so I'll start controlling my portion sizes and take it from there. My fiancee has decided that she wants to go on a diet too (not that she has to in my opinion) so we can diet togther which I think will be a great help

My diet is pretty varied, I eat lots of fruit, veg, and generally cook my own dinners which include pasta or veg etc. I'm pretty good at avoiding chocolate, crisps and the like but I think my problem might be at least partly portion size.

I'll look into the body fat percentage and get some idea of what that is.

Thank you for the advice. The blood pressure measurement probably implies that I can definitely improve my diet, health and fitness etc so I'm definitely going to do something positive from this.

I was getting a check-up at the Doctor's today and she took my weight and height. My BMI is 32.5 which puts me in the obese zone. Also been told I have mildly high blood pressure which might be related to the extra weight.

I am big built and quite muscley but I'm really quite angry with myself for letting myself go this badly and although I've cut the running down recently for various reasons (couple of viruses and felt I was overdoing it somewhat) I still swim at least twice a week including a masters class and hiked over 60km and 3 munros last weekend so think I'm reasonably fit.

I don't drink or smoke so the underlying cause is probably diet and portion sizes.

I'm treating this as a bit of a wake-up call and it's time to go on a diet but I want to be sensible about it...

What does bother me though is how do I find a target weight? Looking at the graphs I need to shed a quarter of my weight to get to my target weight and given I don't look massively overweight, that seems a little excessive.

Thanks for the advice. I think I have a minor case (nothing as serious or unpleasant as yours sounds) but am just getting a bit hacked off with it as it's curtailing my running somewhat and I don't feel that I can push myself as hard as I want to. Fingers crossed that it will shift.

I've moved to swimming at the moment as it doesn't seem to cause the same discomfort as running does.

I've been to the doctors have had a couple of really bad episodes with a very sore abdomen, feeling nauseous, and with excessive sweating. I've been to the GPs and she suspects either Gallstones or Helicobacter Pylori. I'm being sent for blood tests and ultrasound to narrow this down.

If it's gallstones, what's the best way to avoid flare-ups? From what I've read on the web, it seems to suggest that I might need an op if I've got gallstones.

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